1. Latvia finishes fifth at basketball world cup
Given no chance at the start of the tournament, Latvia repeatedy downed higher-ranked teams and narrowly missed out on a medal. For once, basketball was more popular than ice hockey!
2. Third place at the hockey world championships
Another memorable occasion for Latvia's sports stars even resulted in an extra public holiday!
3. Tragedy in Rogovka
The disturbing saga of how a young girl went missing and was later found dead. Family members are currently on trial for her death.
4. Hockey heroes welcomed home
Thousands turned out to welcome the medallists back to Rīga.
5. Floods in Jēkabpils
A natural disaster involved a tense time when it appeared that flood defenses might give way entirely, and an order to evacuate was issued to many. Even so, damage was extensive.
6. Song and Dance Festival start
The traditional parade in full folk costumes proved a hit with online viewers.
7. Murder in Rēzekne
Man gunned down outside store – police made a quick arrest.
8. Battling the Jēkabpils floods
With the situation evolving over many days, readers were keen to be kept up to date with the latest state of the swollen River Daugava.
9. Stricter tests for diesels
Motorists took note of a tighter emissions regime for diesel vehicles that will be introduced from 2025 – will we see a swing to gasoline/petrol engines this year as a result?
10. Is Covid returning?
Understandably, there was a great deal of concern about the potential return of new strains of the virus that caused so many problems in recent years.
The public media news portal LSM.lv held a stable fourth position in the "gemiusAudience" user data for almost the entire year, starting the year as the sixth most visited website, but showing a tendency for the audience to grow slowly but steadily in the following months.
